The present invention relates to the field of graphical user interface controls, more particularly to notched slider control for a graphical user interface.
Numerous graphic user interface (GUI) controls exist to facilitate human-computer interactions. A majority of these GUI controls have a physical world analog, which makes the controls more intuitive for a user. For example, GUI controls include buttons, dials, sliders, and the like. One problem with current slider controls is that users can easily overshoot an intended value, which requires them to perform minute corrections until the value is perfectly matched to the user's intentions. Another annoyance is that fact that the slider user must also look at the value indictor, typically displayed proximate to the slider and configured to dynamically adjust when the slider is moved, to ensure that the desired value is being approached.
Users of GUI sliders can become frustrated with this need to constantly manipulate the slider control to place a slider in a desired position. This is particularly the case when users have a set of values along the slider continuum that are recurrently desired. Often desired values include a zero value, a middle value, and high value, although many others can be desired. Further, specific projects, applications, and/or users can have characteristic slider settings that are recurrently desired for that project, application, and/or user.
Some slider control variations exist that somewhat address the overshooting problem, each of which have a number of drawbacks. One variation is to create a slider with a middle-point that absorbs more “slide” than other positions, which allows users to more easily select a middle position, which is an often desired value. This biasing of a value along a slider continuum can be confusing to users and can be frustrating when a point proximate to the center, yet which is not the center, is desired. Biasing a slider often results in slider controls performing in a manner that is non-intuitive from a user perspective.
Another variation imposes graduations on a slider control, and slide actions of the controller snap to these preset graduations. This solution sacrifices one of the beneficial aspects of a slider control (an ability to use the slide position to reflect a user selectable point along a continuum) in order to simplify a selection of graduation associated values.
Still another solution permits a slider of a slider control to be clicked or double-clicked, which automatically adjusts the slider to a preset position. This solution suffers from being non-intuitive for many users and by being localized to a single value. Adding a “cycle” of presets achieved by clicking can increase a number of presets that can be navigated to, yet can also dramatically increase user confusion.